


A Soul Is Not Satisfied

by cricket_aria



Category: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: Amicable As Possible Break-up, Dialogue Heavy, Fix-It, Friendship, Joseph Good Ending, M/M, Past Building, Sympathetic Joseph, Whole Christiansen Family Good Ending, sympathetic mary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-09 03:13:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11660439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cricket_aria/pseuds/cricket_aria
Summary: Cassidy knew that he'd been a terrible friend to Mary, but he still considered her one and couldn't just ignore her looking miserable (even if he was the one to blame). He tries to salvage their friendship, and maybe in the process find out just why she and Joseph would even want to stay together.





	1. Tried To Reach Beyond the Emptiness...

Almost as soon as he stepped through the door Cassidy realized that going to Jim and Kim’s had been a mistake. His feet had just taken him there without his paying attention, in the months since moving to the area it had become his regular drinking hole and being simple appendages they didn’t realize that anything could have changed that. Not to mention that he didn’t _want_ it to change. He was comfortable there; the atmosphere was friendly, Neil knew him well enough not to try springing a chatty bartender act that would spiral into a socially awkward nightmare on him, they always showed the games with his team when they were playing, and for the first time since college he actually had a couple drinking buddies. Sure, their combined senses of humor could leave him feeling like he was nothing but a constant source of amusement for them, but he was pretty sure that their intentions were more to laugh with him than at him. Usually. Mostly.

There was just the small issue that one of those drinking buddies was a woman who now had every right in the world to hate him. And she was sitting right at the end of the bar.

A smarter man than he was would have turned tail then and there. A braver man maybe ordered a drink and ignored her. One who’d never spent much time with her might have made a scene right there in the bar… if even just trying didn’t turn him into a flustered mess.

But he was none of those men. He was instead the man who had befriended her, even if he’d ultimately been a terrible friend, and who couldn’t ignore that she was obviously in a bad state. She wasn’t fluttering around flirting with or teasing anyone who caught her eye, wasn’t throwing back drinks like it was her favorite thing to do, even ignored Neil’s occasional attempts to chat and the worried eye her kept on her as she sat silently on her stool swirling her untouched drink in its glass.

“Mary, how are you doing?” Cassidy asked, taking the empty stool beside her in a move that he knew might just be pure idiocy. The look she shot him sure implied that she thought it was.

“Hey there, Homewrecker,” she said, slinging back the shot she’d only been toying with until then, “Here to buy a girl a drink? See if you can manage to pull things down from both ends?”

Cassidy felt his face twisting into a grimace but tried to stop it. He was trying to make peace here, not match whatever hostility she threw at him. Still, he couldn’t help saying, “If I were a homewrecker I wouldn’t be out tonight drowning my sorrows, would I?” as he waved Neil over. He earned himself a fresh glare for ordering her wine instead of another whiskey, but slowing down the speed at which she got herself drunk could only help keep things from going completely horrible. “Why are you even here, Mary? Shouldn’t you be at home basking in your renewed love?”

Okay, that was just bitter. Not peace-making. Totally the wrong track.

Except that to his surprise the anger in her expression had faded away as he spoke. To be replaced with a look as if he’d just grown few extra heads and turned bright green before her eyes, but still! Improvement! “Renewed… love?” she repeated slowly, then burst into the loudest laughter he’d ever heard out of her. For just a moment he started to bristle, until he realized that it sounded like she was just honestly amused, not laughing at him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Neil, who’d been keeping wary watch over the two of them, relax a little and took that as a sign that he was reading her right. “Oh god,” she finally said when she regained control over herself, her voice actually raspier than usual from the force of her chuckles, “Is _that_ what he told you? Joseph doesn’t love me, New Kid. He never has.”

“Oh, hey, hey, that’s not true,” Cassidy rushed to reassure her, even as he wondered why he was letting those words come out of his mouth. He’d only sat down to try to salvage their friendship, or at least to make her look a little less miserable, even if he’d known it was really likely the misery would be replaced with her yelling at him. One thing that had definitely _not_ been the plan was trying to help her with a marriage that he really would rather see fail for his own very biased reasons. Still, he found himself continuing to talk, “He told me a little once about how the two of you were young and in love once, back before you settled down and he got all pastor-y. He really did sound like he missed it.”

She laughed again, but this time the sound had lost its mirth. “Oh yes, he was in love back in his ‘wild’ youth. But let me ask you this, Kid, did he ever actually say it was with me?” She took a sip of her wine, watching him sharply over the rim of her glass as he opened his mouth to tell her that of course Joseph had only to realize that, no, he’d never given a name. She looked satisfied with the result when his mouth fell shut again without a word coming out. “Of course he didn’t. Because, in case you somehow missed it,” she leaned close and dropped her voice to a stage whisper, “my dear husband is gayer than a Christmas parade.”

“Well, he likes men, but that doesn’t necessarily mean—”

“I know it doesn’t. I also know Joseph, and you’d think you could give a woman a little trust when she tells you that she’s married to a man who’s gayer than the space between gawp and gaze in the dictionary. I’d know better than you whether or not our children only exist as the result of a little blue pill and a good warm-up of porn featuring extensive close-ups of large pounding dicks.”

Okay, there was a great deal for him to unpack there, but the main thing that stuck out at that moment was “Did you really memorize which words show up around ‘gay’ in the dictionary so you’d have that line ready?”

“You’ll never prove that I don’t just have a spectacular grasp of the English language.” Then she sighed, a bit of the spark she’d regained fading back out again. “Listen, I wasn’t kidding the last time we talked. I really am sorry for both of us, outside of the obvious terrible life-choice elephant in the room you’ve always seemed like a good guy, you didn’t deserve to get caught up in this mess. But for someone your age you’ve still got a lot of growing up to do if you think his life, or mine, is something you can fix by swooping in offering love and friendship. You don’t even get what you got yourself mixed up with.”

She turned from him, lifting her glass once more, but he grabbed her wrist before it could reach her mouth and for once got to see Mary looking genuinely surprised instead of just endlessly jaded. “Okay, you’re right, I don’t get it. If you know he’s gay, if neither of you are happy, I don’t get _at all_ why you’d even want to reconcile, especially if you’re both letting things go right back to the way they’ve been. But I want— No, Mary, I’m sure Joseph won’t tell me and I _need_ to know why you two won’t even give yourselves a shot at being happy.” He released her wrist, and after an awkward moment of flitting his hand around trying to decide where he could rest it that couldn’t be taken the wrong way he settled it on her shoulder. “And I really do mean both of you. I might have terrible life-choice elephant in the room personal reasons for wanting to see him let himself be happy, but you’re my friend too even if I’ve been an awful one. I don’t want you to keep being miserable either.”

She gave him a long look, then sagged slightly, closing her eyes. “You really aren’t his normal type at all, you know that? You’re supposed to get what you want and go, not actually give a shit. No wonder things are so much harder this time.” Then she did something he never would have expected to see from her, she pushed her glass away unfinished. “Will it really make you happier to find out what you tangled yourself up in?”

“Mary,” he said with perfect certainty, even though he doubted the story would be a fun one, “That would make me gayer than a man who really likes other men.”

She actually cracked a slight smile as she stood. “Alright then, Homewrecker, take me back to your place. I’m not having this conversation in a roomful of people.” After a moment her eyes brightened even further, “With any luck Joseph will be watching out the window when you let me in. It will drive him _mad._ If you’re a very lucky boy maybe he’ll even grow the balls to burst in and try to save you from whatever his hateful wife is trying to do to you. Wouldn’t count on it though.”

“You’re not hateful, Mary,” Cassidy said, holding open the door for her. “You’re not a bundle of sunshine and kittens, but you aren’t hateful.”

“Oh, Kid. All you’re telling me is that you don’t know either of us as well as you think.”


	2. ...But Neither One Knew How

It had been a muggy day, one of the first days of June to start building towards a true summer heat, but a breeze had come up with the night that promised the walk home would be more pleasant than his one in had been. He took a deep breath of it as they walked out the door and could taste the sea even from the distance they were at, bringing with it happy memories turned bittersweet.

“You said—” he started only to cut himself off, his face twisting, not sure if he wanted to know the answer to the question he was about to ask.

She glanced at him, eyebrow arching, “Don’t go and lose your nerve now, Kid. You’re the one who wanted to know all the dirty details.”

Cassidy sighed. She was right, and he couldn’t very well only ask to hear the parts of the truth that wouldn’t make him feel bad. “You said I’m not his usual type. Does he do things like _this_ often?” If he did then maybe the whole night was pointless, maybe Joseph had just been stringing him along, making him feel like he was something special, when he’d never felt anything real to begin with. Except that even if that were the case Mary would still be his friend, and for that reason alone he had to at least try to make her see that nothing good could happen from things staying the way they were.

“He’s never done anything like this before,” she said, and there was actually a flash of sadness across her face. “Not wanted to make anything actually _happen_ between him and someone else, not that I know of. He’ll let men take him home now and then, let them use him to get their rocks off, and never see them again. Well, except for Robert, but that’s a matter of proximity.”

“Wait, you knew about Robert?”

“ _You_ knew about Robert? Of course _I_ did, he is one of my closest friends.” An especially strong gust blew by and she rubbed her arms through her sleeves than glanced at him. “You know, it’s awfully untoward not to offer a lady you’re walking home your arm.”

If he hadn’t just slept with her husband not that long ago Cassidy might have made a crack about not seeing any ladies to need to worry about that, but with their friendship on rocky ground of his own creation he instead opted for “’Untoward’? Have you been spending too much time with Damien?” as he offered out his arm. Her hands were colder than he would have expected from the breeze alone when she wrapped them around his elbow to warm.

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it.” She didn’t elaborate further on that cryptic remark, but tilted her head back to look at the stars. “Robert hates himself a bit for that, you know. For offering, and for not taking the offer back when Joseph accepted, and for not being able to convince me to leave after what they’d done. If you ever really want to see him bothered ask what he thinks of that sweater Joseph wears everywhere.”

“It belonged to him, didn’t it?” Cassidy asked, remembering the photo on the yacht. “I saw a picture of a party where he had it on.”

“Then had it thrown off as soon as everyone else left, yes, and forgot it the next morning.” She glanced at Cassidy’s face, lips quirking upward at whatever she saw there. “Now don’t start worrying that Joseph’s carrying around a torch for Robert, they would drive each other mad. For one thing, extended contact with Robert reminds him too much of me. I think Joseph likes wearing it around because it reminds him that every so often, even if it’s just for a few hours, he can sneak off and get the sort of thing that he wants.” Then she prodded him in the side, a little more sharply than he thought she usually would have. “By the way, be careful there, Champ. I know the only place you would have seen that photo and you’re coming awfully close to admitting things that I’ve damned well noticed you’ve been dancing around actually saying.”

Cassidy stayed quiet for a long tense moment, then hung his head. “He told me that you were leaving each other. I swear, if I hadn’t believed him I wouldn’t have done that to you.” Though he honestly wasn’t sure whether he was telling her the truth or not. He remembered every second of that day, remembered that they were already leaning into each other before Joseph stopped to tell him that the marriage was over. _Would_ he have been a good enough man not to let himself close that distance if Joseph had kept his mouth shut?

“He…” Mary started, and when Cassidy glanced down at her hesitation he saw that the muscles in her jaw had gone tight like she didn’t really want to say whatever was about to come out. But after a moment she grit it out anyway, “He wasn’t lying to you, if it bothers you. He’s not that terrible. We were beginning to separate, but, well, that’s part of the story you’ll hear once we’re behind closed doors.” Then she laughed hollowly, “It’s a good thing you didn’t leave any clothing behind, or he’s have worn it until it crusted.”

They entered the cul-de-sac and she went from simply holding onto his arm to nestling into his side, making him raise an eyebrow at her. “You’re really hoping he’ll be watching my house, aren’t you?”

“Chances are good that he’ll be mopily staring out the window at it,” she replied with a bit more cheer, and Cassidy knew that he shouldn’t let his stomach turn a flip-flop at the implications but that was beyond his control. “Don’t fret your boots too much, Kid, anyone else who looks out either knows me well enough to figure out what’s going down or will just think ‘Poor little Cassidy, got stuck walking drunken handsy Mary home, look at that scene she’s making of herself.’”

It was just about the saddest thing he’d ever heard, how matter-of-factly she said those words, not even the bitterness he would have expected from her tinging them. He tucked her arm into his a little more firmly, properly taking it instead of just letting her hold on, and said, “You shouldn’t just accept people saying things like that about you. You’re worth more than that.”

“Says the man attempting to destroy my marriage! Amazing!”

“Do you really have a marriage left to destroy, Mary?” he asked with a sigh, than immediately regretted it. That was too harsh and he knew it.

But she sighed right back, dropping her head to his shoulder. “Fair point, Homewrecker.”

They finished the rest of the walk in silence, not quite comfortable but nowhere close to as horrible as he would have imagined being alone with her would be if he’d considered it at the start of the evening. “Make yourself comfortable,” he said as he let her in, “I need to make sure we don’t end up with any prying ears. There’s no alcohol in the house since, you know, eighteen-year-old, but feel free to peruse our fine selection of hot cocoas in the cupboard above the coffee pot or go into the fridge for one of the juices we have freshly squeezed, from a blob of concentrate, into a cardboard container, and then shipped to the store for our purchasing pleasure.”

“Really trying to make a good case of convincing me you’re not a dweeb there, aren’t you Dweeb?” she asked, rolling her eyes at him, but she did follow him into the kitchen to poke around the drink cupboard while he took a minute to prepare a peanut butter and honey sandwich and a glass of water to carry up to Amanda.

He tapped softly on the door a few times before letting himself in. The midnight snack went on her bedside table then he stroked her hair softly as he whispered, “Hey, Panda?” trying to wake her as gently as possible.

“Mrrrrph, Dad?” she finally mumbled, eyes squinting open.

“Hey, I brought you a midnight snack.”

She squinted at the her alarm clock then turned a frown on him. “Oh my god, Pops, I only went to bed, like, twenty minutes ago. …Did something happen to one of the Grands?”

“Oh, no, no Panda, I’m sorry!” he rushed to reassure away the sudden fear in her eyes. He hadn’t even stopped to think about what it might seem like to have him suddenly waking her up like that. “Listen, honey, I just need you to promise you won’t come downstairs tonight. I know you go down for food sometime, so I made sure something’s ready for you.”

She eyeballed him suspiciously, then her mouth twisted into a grimace. “Ewwww, dad, if you brought someone home use your room like a normal old person. Your daughter’s butt sits on that couch! Protect that butt from really creepy cooties!”

“That’s still no, Amanda! I’m just going to be talking to a friend who’s having a hard time, and I need you to make sure you don’t listen in. And I mean that for real, Manda Panda, this isn’t like how the more I tell you not to look for your Christmas presents the harder you try to find them early. This isn’t something for you to hear, any more than it would be right if I eavesdropped on you and the Emmas.”

“Hey, I’m not that big of a snoop, Dad!” she protested, but when he just cocked his head at her she laughed and admitted “Okay, I’m totally that much of a snoop. But you didn’t raise a total dick, I won’t stick my nose in other folk’s personal biz. I promise you won’t see hide or hair of me until morning, and as long as whoever you’re talking to doesn’t get loud enough for me to hear anything if I make a bathroom run their secrets will remain hidden from my curious little ears.”

He smiled at her and ruffled her hair. “That’s all I needed to hear. I’m sorry I insulted the honor of your snoopery.”

“So long as you never do it again,” she said, and playfully gave him a snooty wave to send him on his way. “Go, play counselor or whatever you’re doing. Though you might wanna let them know there’s a real one next door.”

He paused at her door at those words, grateful that his back was to her so she couldn’t see the look on his face. “That… would not be the best choice.”

“Not the Jesusy type, huh?” He heard her burrowing back into her covers, and was glad that apparently his voice hadn’t given anything away.

“Something like that. Night, Panda. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite. If they do hit ‘em with a shoe ‘til they’re black and blue.”

“Boy, midnight snacks and rhymey good nights. We’ve regressed to me being a five-year-old here, haven’t we?”

“Amanda, I say with perfect sincerity that you will always be a five-year-old in my heart.”

“Gee, thanks Pop. Then I will say with perfect sincerity that you will always be the oldest thing in the universe that’s not a Grand in the heart of my inner five-year-old.”

“Good talk, honey. Good talk.” He shut her door behind him then made his way back downstairs, finding Mary examining the photos hanging in the living room. “Is that Nesquik?” he said, taking in the contents of her glass. “The choice of a true connoisseur.”

“Reminds me of being a kid,” she said with a shrug, then tapped the frame of the picture she was at. “So that was your wife, huh? Pretty. Less generically blond than I would have expected from what I’ve seen of your taste, though I guess Amanda had to inherit her hair from someone.”

“Joseph isn’t really my usual type either,” Cassidy admitted, smiling fondly at Alex. The photo wouldn’t be anything special to outsiders, just a closeup of her face, but he wanted to have her grinning at him right where he could see it when he came down every morning.

Even if he was uncomfortable aware of how she might feel about certain recent choices in his life.

“And your marriage, it was a good one?” Her voice was so wistful that it made his heart hurt. For her, for Joseph, for all of them.

“There wasn’t a day— there wasn’t an _hour_ she didn’t make me smile when I was near her,” he said, joining her by the wall of pictures. “I loved her for over twenty years. I don’t think I’ll ever stop, even if it’s been long enough that I can start finding other people special again.”

“See?” Mary said, tight and sharp, “You’ve lived a life where you can’t even begin to imagine what ours has been like. You get that, right?”

“I know,” he admitted. “That’s why I need you to help me understand.”

“…Okay,” she said with a heavy sigh. “Okay, let’s sit down. This isn’t a fun story.”

He settled onto the couch, expecting she would sit beside him, but instead she kept some distance by dropping into a chair, both hands curling around her drink like she was using it as a shield before her. “The first thing I need to know is, has Joseph told you about his father at all?”

“A little. The yacht came from him. He was a devote man. That’s about it.”

“Even that’s more than he’ll usually tell people about the old bastard. Congratulations, my husband must really like you. You must be so proud. But it wasn’t just the boat. Our house, a few others we sold, the money we live on, everything. He was a very wealthy man and he left it all to Joseph, as long as he fulfilled the conditions of his will.” She stared up at Cassidy, eyes narrowed, and asked “How do you think a devote, _very fundamentalist_ , Christian reacted to his only son running off to be with another man? Not even trying to hide the truth about himself?”

Cassidy stared at her, not even able to find his words for a minute, before finally spluttering, “You can’t be saying what I think you’re saying. That’s like something you’d hear from the fifties!”

“You’re naive as hell if that’s what you think, Kid. Naive and lucky. A quarter of his inheritance if he got married, to a woman, within a year. A quarter for becoming an active presence in the church. The final half if he had his first kid within five. ‘Be fruitful and multiply’ and all that crap. If Joseph didn’t comply with the terms then half the inheritance would go to distant family, and as for the other half… Did you know conversion therapy’s still a thing? And that the more unpopular it gets the happier its practitioners are for any donations?” Her knuckles had gone white around her drink, enough that Cassidy feared a little for his glass, and for all that they were horrible for each other in the present he could see from the intense anger she still obviously felt at the contents of that will that maybe once upon a time they’d at least had a little common ground to stand on. “He didn’t just want to use his final act to force Joseph into a life he would approve of, he wanted to _hurt_ him, as much as he was able, if Joseph failed to do so.”

“So that’s why you’re always so angry with him. Because he tricked you into marrying him to fulfill the terms of the will?” He felt queasy at the thought, it was the first thing he’d heard about Joseph that made him regret even wanting to spend time with him, if he’d do that to another person. But even as that feeling settled in she reassured him with a snorting laugh.

“Fuck no. He didn’t even go looking, but he also didn’t keep the word from spreading or put it out there that he wasn’t interested like I think he would have if it hadn’t been for that last part. Like I said, he’s not _that_ terrible. But it was still an awkward situation, because we, we’re supposed to be the _better_ generation, you know? A more progressive one than our parents. It’s one thing to be a beard to a man who’s in the closet by choice, but something else entirely to force them back in when they don’t want to be. He was getting a lot of eyes on him, but no one wanted to be the one to step forward and get their reputation torn to shreds behind their back.”

“Until you?”

She hummed agreement and stretched back in her chair, silent for a moment as she seemed to consider how much of her story she wanted to tell him. “My family had also been wealthy. _Been_. Until we were hit by the unlucky one-two punch of my father being a gambler with his investments and rightly guessing that internet business was the wave of the future but jumping in before anyone had a real plan for making it work. He lost it all when the dot-com bubble popped, and I, well, I was only 18. I’d spent my whole life assured that if I wanted it then college would be taken care of whatever my grades were, that a high-paying job would be waiting for me as soon as I was done there, that I would never have to worry about anything. Instead I didn’t have the grades for a scholarship, any sort of skills to put towards jumping into a career, and no idea at all of how to be poor. I was terrified, Cassidy. And I’d heard the rumors about an escape.”

He knew all this was very important, and very sad, but he’d also been running the math in his head and couldn’t help bursting out, “Oh my god, you’re younger than me! I’d already had Amanda when the dot-com bubble burst. I owned a house! You call me kid _all the time_!”

“I might be younger than you in years, but I’m older in experience, _Kid_ ,” she said with narrowed eyes. “Now do you want to hear the rest of this story or not? Because you’re sure doing a swell job there of convincing me that you were a good choice to confide in.”

“Sorry, sorry, go ahead.”

“Fine. I was vaguely aware of him from social functions when I was younger, although he’d never appeared since falling into the ‘young and in love’ days you mentioned earlier, but I’d never really spoken to him. And by the time I found him there was only a month left to go for him to meet the first condition of the will. Maybe if we’d had any time to really get to know each other I would have changed my mind, but probably not.” She curled her feet up beneath her and leaned her head against the side of her chair, looking lost in nostalgia even though he didn’t know what she could find to feel wistful about in those memories. “I was a kid, you know how kids are. I couldn’t consider the future far enough ahead to think ‘Maybe one day being chained to a man you don’t love will make you more miserable than being poor would, and by the time you figure it out there’ll be kids locking you in even tighter.’ So when he asked if I was sure I said yes with enough conviction to convince him.” She took a sip of her chocolate milk, a drink he now understood reminded her of a time when she was happy, and pushed her hair back behind her ear. It was the most vulnerable-looking he’d ever seen her. “I’ll be fair to him, he did _try_ at first. Not to love me the way a husband should, we both knew that wasn’t on the table, but to be as good of one as he could to me regardless. He left his lover. He took me on trips, he gave me gifts, he tried to make me happy until Chris was born and we stopped having much time to spare on little things.”

“He’d have made time, in a real relationship,” Cassidy said firmly, and she shot him a startled look. Surprised that he would say something even slightly negative about Joseph, maybe. “I know what you had wasn’t one, but you were so young when all this started I just wanted to make sure you knew that. If you ever do leave him, and I’m not just saying this because I hope you do, you can find someone who would make you feel special and loved no matter how hectic life gets.”

“Don’t go getting all mushy on me there, Dork. It’s not like I was blameless. Joseph might have stopped trying to be good for me, but I… don’t know that I’d ever even tried to be a good wife to him to begin with, and I’ll admit that that’s my crime in this marriage. At the beginning I was too young to stop and think that even if he didn’t want me as a wife he might have liked to have me as his friend. By the time I was old enough to consider the idea it was too late, I was full of regret over my own choices and had no interest in making things any easier for him. He spent more and more time helping out at the church, which not only got him out of the house but gave him the one little form of rebellion against his father’s wishes that he could manage; the man only said he had to take part in “the church”, he never said Joseph couldn’t pick the most progressive one he could find and spend his time teaching children not to become adults like his father or trapped like him. I spent more and more time at the bar. We had another kid so Chris wasn’t stuck with _just us_ in his life to care about, only to end up with two.”

Though the whole story was miserable, the idea that they thought the love they showed to Chris wouldn’t be enough on its own, that he’d need someone else there that he could love and be loved by without having to watch them being shunned by someone else he cared about, was trying to top all the rest of the story in depression levels in Cassidy’s eyes, not least because it obviously didn’t seem to have done any good. “And Crish?” he asked out of morbid curiosity.

“Well, I guess I did lie to you a little. We did have one pill-free child. Crish was the result of too much to drink and Robert acting like a god-damned tease at a barbecue just to drive Joseph nuts. Got him worked up enough that he touched me of his own volition for the first and only time. Unfortunately, circumstances being what they are, I don’t bother to keep birth control around. And Robert had the worst timing in the world for acting like an ass. Fuck, that poor kid,” she said, raking her hand through her hair. “If we’d been decent people we’d have given him up. He was fucked to start with, god, even his name was me being a bitch.”

“Crish? I never got that one, but how is it—”

“It’s short for Krishna,” she cut him off sharply. “Joseph wasn’t there yet when they asked what we’d chosen for a name, and I just, I got the urge to be an asshole about the dumb naming theme our kids have and it popped into my head that it had the right sound and the right godliness level for totally the wrong religion and I just said it. Even though I knew that Joseph is _all_ about keeping up appearances and once he heard what I’d said he’d rather run with it than let anyone think there was some sort of _marital disagreement_ happening. And now our poor kid has a stupid nickname to hide the fact that his actual name is probably sacrilegious and definitely disrespectful. Do you get it yet, New Kid, just how much of a mess you’ve gotten yourself tangled up in?”

“I get it. And I get that it’s even worse of one than I knew.” Then he shifted down the couch closer to her, leaning in and hoping that she could tell how sincerely he wanted to know, “So why aren’t you getting out of it? You said you’d explain that too, but now I’m just more confused than ever. They can’t still be watching him over the will thing after this long.”

“Can you seriously not guess? It’s because of the kids, obviously,” she said, then turned her head away from the expression on his face. “Don’t look at me like than, this isn’t some ‘kids mustn’t grow up in a split home’ idiocy. We literally _can’t_ leave each other because of them. Joseph doesn’t have the time to raise four children alone, he’s busy with church work all the time. I wouldn’t _want_ to be the one with custody, but even if I did I couldn’t afford to; I don’t even know how I’d live myself if we separated, I’m sure the animal shelter would hire me on as a paid staff member but wouldn’t be able to pay me much, and we had a prenup that keeps me from getting any of his father’s money. Which is basically all of our money, a youth pastor isn’t exactly a position that brings in hordes of dough. I’m sure he’d provide plenty of child support, but I’d still have to work my ass off to afford a home large enough for five. And if I managed it then I’d have just as little time for them as he would. Once they’re all old enough to fend for themselves more we can finally be done with each other, but Crish made that a long time coming.”

“…Mary…” Cassidy said, trying to think of the kindest way he could phrase what he needed to say, then just completely giving up and going with, “…that’s incredibly stupid.” He expected her to look enraged, but instead she seemed too overwhelmingly shocked that he would dare to respond to her painful story with an insult for anger to gain hold, she just stared at him slack-jawed and wide-eyed. “Or, okay, maybe you’re not stupid. Maybe you’re both just so set in thinking that there’s no way out of this marriage that you’ve built up these mountains in your minds without realizing that they aren’t actually there. Like, first of all? Nannies exist, and if Joseph is really sitting on all this money from his dad then getting one shouldn’t be a problem. Sure, maybe they’ll grow up with bitter stories about how mommy and daddy left raising them to the help, but not as bitter as the stories would be about watching mommy and daddy hating each other all through their childhood. Secondly,” he held up two fingers to punctuate the point, “I’m pretty sure Joseph moving onto the yacht for a while means he was planning to give you the house no matter what the prenup says, and I’m just as sure that if he inherited it it’s got to be paid off, right? So there goes worrying about a place to live while you find a job. Third,” another finger went up, “okay, maybe this is overstepping my bounds some but if Joseph and I… well, _if_ , we’ll be right next door. The kids can spend their days wherever they want when there isn’t a reason for them to be one place or the other. And even if things don’t go the way I’d like I’m still going to have one hell of a case of empty nest syndrome starting this fall. I’d be happy to help you when you have them.”

“You find my kids creepy as hell, Cassidy,” she said flatly, and it probably wasn’t the time for him to give an inner cheer at her actually using his name.

“Which makes me even more happy to help them grow into healthily not-creepy individuals!”

She closed her eyes and pressed her hand to her forehead, strain showing in her face like it hurt to even consider that maybe the only reason the trap that was her life seemed so inescapable was because she’d gotten so used to it being that way that she’d never even noticed that the door wasn’t locked. “You don’t know him well enough to make promises like that. He doesn’t know _you_ well enough to. I _like_ you, Kid, I can’t watch you tie your life to a man you’ve only known for a little while like I did, just because you feel sorry for me.”

He reached out and gently pushed her chin up, making her look up at him again. Her eyes were shining, whether it was with hope or tears or both he couldn’t say. “I’m not saying I will. Maybe things will work out between Joseph and me if we have the chance to try. Maybe they won’t. But I’ll still help you when they’re with you, just like I would with any of the kids in the neighborhood. It’s being a good neighbor. And a good friend.”

“Do you have any idea how much people would talk if I listened to you? If he moved in with you, if you were public about your relationship?” She barked out a laugh so harsh it was almost a sob, “Though I’ll give you this, it might be the only way _I’d_ be the one to get most of the sympathy over the divorce here in the neighborhood.”

Cassidy shrugged. “Let them talk. If it works for all of us who are they to say anything? Frankly, if dumping you for the guy-next-door makes you seem _less_ like you’re about to tear his head off at any minute I think our neighbors would be glad for all three of us just for that.”

Something finally seemed to snap in her and she she fell forward into him, the dregs of her chocolate milk splashing onto the floor as her arms wrapped tightly around him. “ _I don’t believe you_ ,” she said against his shoulder, and he could feel wetness from her cheek against his neck. “I don’t believe you that it could really be as easy as all that. But, god help me, I want to try. Help us find the ways out of here that we can’t see and you can _have him_ , with all the blessing I can give. But you have swear you’re going to help, because I’m not going to be able to believe it can really happen on my own, and neither will he.”

“I promise on my fatherly honor, Mary,” he said solemnly, and was surprised when she actually really laughed again.

“The honor of a homewrecker, that’s really a powerful sell.” She pulled herself away, angling her head so her hair fell closely around her face and prevented him from getting a good look at it as she stood, hiding away whatever tears might have fallen. “I think I need to be alone for awhile and think about this more. I’ll send him over, you can break the happy news. Maybe it’ll be easier when we’re trying to believe from both sides.”

She started letting herself out, but he called out, “Mary!” stopping her. She still didn’t let him get a good look at her, but paused to hear out what he had to say. “No matter what happens, I hope you know you’re welcome over here any time you need to get away for a little bit.”

“That’s a pretty offer, Kid, but, in case you haven’t been listening to yourself, soon there might be someone else over here who I would _not_ want to get away _to_. I’ll stick to Dames when I need a confidant, thanks, or Small when he’s in the mood get get commiserative over how much my marriage sucked. But you… you feel free to come next door whenever you feel like having a good bitchfest over Joseph. I’m sure he’ll start to grate before too long.”

Then she was gone, and Cassidy was left waiting to see if she really was about to send Joseph to his door.


	3. Everything Carries Me To You

It said something about how eagerly Cassidy was listening for a knock at the door that he was able to pick up on, instead, a faint scuffling noise as if someone was hesitating at his doorstep. While he’d been waiting Cassidy had tried to convince himself that he’d play things cool when Joseph arrived, that he’d sit him down, lay things out, let Joseph decide where he wanted to go from there while trying not to seem too eager. Protect himself a little if things didn’t go the way he wanted. But at the indecision of that sound he was up and all but stumbling over his own feet in his rush to get to the door, before there was any chance for Joseph to decide against knocking.

He flung open the door and suddenly there were cliches that made sense to him in a way they never had before. Because Joseph, in the brief moment of surprise before he was able to gain control over his features, really did look at him like Cassidy imagined a man lost in the desert might stare at an oasis. He honestly didn’t know what he’d done to deserve being looked at like that. He honestly didn’t think that he _did_ deserve it, he knew himself well enough to know that he was just an ordinary dork whose closest claim to specialness was being especially good at throwing off dad puns. It wasn’t even as if everything that had happened with Joseph had been some grand seduction, all he’d done was try to be a good friend to the man, and the attraction had just happened to be there.

Mary’s words from earlier suddenly drifted through his mind. _‘He’ll let men take him home now and then, let them use him to get their rocks off, and never see them again.’_ Could it really be as simple as that? Could Joseph be so starved for simple affection that just having someone want him for more than a quick screw affected him so strongly? Maybe the thought should have made Cassidy feel less important to Joseph, that his place in his heart could have been taken by any past lover who’d just shown him a little kindness, but instead it just filled him with a terrible pity that for however many years this depressing cycle of Joseph and Mary’s marriage had been going on Joseph had apparently never found anyone else who’d offered it to him.

Riding on its wave all thoughts of trying to hide his eagerness were washed away. Joseph, Cassidy was only half-hearing, had been saying, “I, uh… Mary woke me up to say ‘Alright, you asshole, go over there,’ and I didn’t know where else she might—” but cut the words off by grabbing the soft fabric of his pajama shirt and crushing their mouths together.

Any final doubts he might have had left after Mary’s reassurance over whether or not Joseph had gone into that day on the yacht already planning on loving and leaving him were driven away by that kiss. The ones back then had been passionate enough that remembering them could still leave Cassidy feeling hot under the collar without even letting his mind drift into the more X-rated parts of the night, but he could now say for sure that they had _not_ been Joseph kissing him like he thought he never would again. Joseph’s arms wrapped around him so tightly that Cassidy was vaguely aware he might feel it in his ribs the next day, though the concern was a distant one that couldn’t take much prominence against the softly yearning groan Joseph had let out the moment their lips had met, his tongue surging into Cassidy’s mouth like he wanted to seal them together, the feel of his breath harsh against Cassidy’s face.

Then he wrenched himself away with such force that Cassidy was afraid for a second that he was going to fall over, twisting his head quickly back and forth to make sure nobody was out to see them. “We can’t,” he said shakily. “I’ve told you that we can’t.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Cassidy told him with a warm smile, the knowledge that Joseph was wrong about that washing away how terrible he would have otherwise felt at that reaction, “that wasn’t how I’d planned to start things out. Come in, we need to talk.” When Joseph didn’t immediately step in his grin grew teasing as he added, “Don’t worry, Amanda’s in bed so I can’t be luring you in to do anything that would be loud enough to wake her up. You know by now that means nothing could happen until I had a chance to test out the soundproofing of my room.” There was just enough light provided by the open door for him to see Joseph’s face flush before he finally stepped in.

“You’ve done some nice work with the place,” Joseph told him as he stepped in, so quickly covering up the emotions of just a moment before with a veneer of jocular neighborliness. “Moving away from that packing box aesthetic really opened up the floor plan, I heartily approve.”

Had Joseph really not been inside his home since the day they’d moved in? Thinking back Cassidy guessed that he hadn’t, which was funny because he could so easily picture him in any of the rooms as if he belonged there. Wishful imagining, he guessed. “Thanks, I decided all the cardboard was just too retro for my taste. Sit down, can I get you a drink? Chocolate milk’s been what’s on tap,” he said, nodding towards the glass Mary had left behind which he’d moved up onto the coffee table but moved no further lest he miss Joseph’s knock.

“What, no marga—” Joseph started to joke before his mouth snapped shut. Too close to flirtation, Cassidy guessed, to treading back into places he’d told himself he could no longer be. A day ago it would have been painful, but now he was just very happy to know that soon he’d be able to release Joseph for those worries. “…No,” he finished, after a deep breath. “No, I’m good. I shouldn’t stay too long. Not with the missus waiting up on me.”

“Probably not,” Cassidy said, letting Joseph figure out for himself whether he was referring to the length of his visit or the likelihood that Mary was waiting up. He settled back onto the couch, gesturing beside him. “Here, sit.”

Unlike Mary, Joseph actually did sit beside him, a little closer than was strictly friendly in spite of everything. “Alright, so,” Joseph said, clasping his hands together on his knee and falling into what Cassidy imagined was probably his counselor mode, “what was so urgent that I needed to come over at one in the morning? If, uh, Mary was willing to send me over I’m guessing Amanda might be having some trouble you could use my skills for?”

“…No, but now that you say that I realize that you might have been some help a few weeks ago. Oh well, I successfully dadded all that out.” He was still a little proud of how well he’d handled that one, even if his stomach had tormented him all that night from all the cake he’d eaten. It had been Amanda’s first big emotional crisis that he’d had to help her through without Alex by his side, and he’d nailed it. “So, listen, I ran into Mary at the bar tonight.”

“I assumed.” For a moment distaste flickered across Joseph’s face before it quickly smoothed out. “It wasn’t likely that you’d have come across her elsewhere.”

“Yeah, well, we talked. And we talked for a long time. And there was some yelling and some crying…” Joseph’s expression slowly grew tight as his own words were tossed back at him, and for all his affection for the man it did feel good to poke at him just a little bit about that. Joseph would admit himself that he deserved it, he knew. “Well, not any yelling actually, even though I would have deserved it at least as much as you did. I think she likes me more than you.”

“What is your point here, Cassidy?”

“I’m getting there, I promise! She told me a lot of things… which I probably should have heard from you, really, so, uh, sorry about that. But! The important part here is she told me why the two of you really decided to stick together. That it didn’t have anything to do with you still loving her very much.”

“Cassidy,” Joseph said quietly, not quite meeting his eyes in the same way he had the day of Amanda’s graduation party, “I think I’d know the state of my marriage a bit better than you do.”

“Yeah, but so would Mary. And she’d have less reason to lie to me to… To try to hurt me less, I’m guessing? That’s the only thing I can think of, anyway, that you thought it be easier if I thought you’d chosen her over me than that you wanted us to be together couldn’t have it. Like tearing off a band-aid, right?” Joseph’s face was like a still mask, giving no sign whether he’d guessed correctly, but Cassidy thought he could take that as an answer in and of itself. “The thing is, though, that after we talked about those reasons you had for awhile she agreed that they weren’t actually as insurmountable as they seemed. And then she gave us her blessing.”

The stillness of Joseph’s face spread, his entire body becoming like a statue before Cassidy’s eyes. He still didn’t look at him. It was a long moment before he finally took a shuddering breath and in a dull voice said, “Cassidy, you know what the good book says about lying.”

“Listen, even if there’d been some trouble with Amanda do you think Mary would _ever_ have sent you over here, alone, at this time of night if I wasn’t telling the truth? What would it even gain me if I was lying, Joseph? Best case scenario, what, I spend one more night with you and then you hate me in the morning when she storms over and the truth comes out? All I’d be doing it shooting myself in the foot there, because, if you haven’t noticed, I want you in my life.” He reached out to touch Joseph’s knee, hoping he might somehow pass on his sincerity through touch if his words weren’t managing it, and _Joseph was shaking_. Joseph who, even when he was being open enough to make Cassidy feel like something special, always kept himself so under control. Joseph who, as Mary had told him on that first day they’d really spent time with each other, was _so_ good at pretending to be happy. He was trembling strongly enough that now that Cassidy knew to pay attention for it he could faintly feel it through the couch. “Joseph,” he said gently, “I can’t promise you Margaritaville. Us being right here where taking care of the kids can stay split between the two of you is a pretty major part of Mary being okay with this, so taking off for a tropical beach somewhere wouldn’t work out too well. But I swear I’ll do everything I can to make sure you don’t want to escape into the Margarita Zone so much.”

And before he even knew what was happening he was slamming backwards onto the couch under two-hundred odd pounds of well-muscled blond, so suddenly that his legs bent awkwardly to the side before his mind managed to catch up enough to untwist them. Which took longer than it usually would, the discomfort pushed back by Joseph’s desperate mouth against him, seemingly unable to settle for a moment as he kissed his way across every bit of Cassidy that he could reach without moving away for even an instant. “I didn’t—” he started, but even pulling back for the length of those short words seemed to be too much for him as with a groan he pressed forward to capture Cassidy’s lips with his again. Finally, slowly, with kisses peppering the space between every word, he got out, “I didn’t even let myself _hope_. Mary seemed so sure, and I couldn’t expect you to wait for Crish to grow.” Finally he seemed to settle, his face pressing into Cassidy’s neck, his body remaining a heavy sprawl on top of Cassidy’s own, and added with a chuckle, “It was enough to make a man consider Catholicism.”

Cassidy’s hands ran up and down Joseph’s back, too dazed to do much else, but he slowly processed the words enough to reply, “…I don’t get that one.”

“They have a saint to pray to for hopeless causes. It almost seemed worth trying.”

Cassidy wiggled back as much as as the couch allowed him, until he was sure that Joseph could see it when he rolled his eyes at him with a fond smile. “ _You two_. You both got it so stuck in your heads that your marriage was some inescapable trap that you never even thought to ask for an outside opinion, did you? Did you guys really think you’d have to work out the kids thing alone? You do realize that in less than two months my precious baby girl is moving away forever, or at least until Christmas, and I will have massive amounts of pent-up dad energy in search of an outlet, right? Even if this,” he made himself pull a hand away from Joseph long enough to gesture over their bodies, “had never happened I would totally have been kidnapping your kids for impromptu games of catch and bicycle lessons whenever they wandered over the border between our yards.”

“You’re wounding my own dad pride here by implying I’ve failed at teaching my children who are old enough to learn to bike, Cassidy. And you’ve earned up a lot of goodwill with the twins for playing along with their little quirks, but you’ll lose it all if they think you’re treating them like babies.”

“Okay, lessons in how to ride with _style_. They will all have playing cards pinned into their spokes and be experts in riding on each others handlebars before the year is out!”

“Cassidy,” Joseph said, both face and voice growing mock-serious, “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but as a man whose livelihood requires a connection with today’s youth I feel its my duty to let you know; your idea of riding with style was left behind in the eighties. Nineties at best.”

“ _No!_ ” Cassidy gasped jokingly, “I’m still hip! I’m still with it!” He almost yelled up to Amanda ‘Your old man’s still with it, right?’ before remembering it was past one in the morning, and as much as they both enjoyed their repartee she probably wouldn’t forgive him for waking her up a second time. While being dangerously close to defiling a place she sat with really gross cooties. With someone she’d just see as a married man. Right, keeping the conversation to just the two of them then. He shifted around to get more comfortable, Joseph allowing him to jostle him around as he desired even though the feel of his muscles against Cassidy’s body was a constant reminder that he could, and had, move him around like he weighed next to nothing if he wanted. “You might have been wrong, you know. About whether I would have waited a few years if things hadn’t worked out now. If I knew waiting was an option.”

Joseph frowned at him instead of looking pleased at the revelation. “Don’t say that. I would have been insane if I’d asked you to do that.”

“I’m serious! Do you know why I moved out here? Because I couldn’t stand being surrounded by memories of Alex everywhere I went anymore. When I lost her I couldn’t imagine that I’d be interested in anyone else for a _very_ long time, if I ever was. Then I met you, and I don’t know why I was so drawn to you, but,” he shrugged “I’m still not interested in anyone else but my wife, and it’s not like I’m searching. I might have been able to mope around over both of you until Crish started school. Unless Brian started dating someone and bragging about how happy they were together, then all bets would have been off. …That was all less specifically romantic to you than I meant for it to be. Sorry.” He planted an apologetic kiss on Joseph’s forehead.

“No, no, I understand. I, uh… here’s a confession for you. Remember that first awkward conversation we wiped out of existence? I was jealous of her back then.” When Cassidy raised an eyebrow at him Joseph hastened to add, “Crackers, not like that! I assure you, my intentions at the time were entirely neighborly! But you so obviously loved your wife, and I, well, I _do_ care about Mary’s well-being, but emotion like that,” he pulled Cassidy closer, his embrace once again tight enough to almost be painful, “I thought it would always stay out of my reach.” 

“Joseph Christansen, I solemnly swear that I will do everything I can to change your mind about that.” Then, aware that he was stepping too close to implying confessions their relationship was much too new to give truth to, he pushed Joseph back. “So, Mary said she wanted to be alone tonight, which seems like pretty clear permission, and you _are_ already wearing your jimjams, do you want to move to bed before our old man minds can’t stand being up this late anymore? Those are very cute, by the way.”

“Why thank you!” Joseph say up and jut his chest out with joking pride, the cartoonish sailboats covering it shifting like they were at sea with the movement, “They were a Christmas gift from the twins. I wear them with nautical fatherly pride. Although I must admit that they wouldn’t have been my first choice for outfits to be seduced away from my family in.”

“You, uh, have a first choice for that?”

A slow grin slid across Joseph’s face as he stood, offering his hand to help Cassidy to his feet. “ _Well_ , nothing comes to mind.”

It took Cassidy a moment and a few steps to process from the tone of his voice that he just wasn’t admitting to a lack of ideas, then he felt his face slowly flush red. “I, uh, wasn’t kidding about the soundproofing issue. I really don’t want to risk waking Panda up with… _noise_.”

Suddenly Joseph’s arms were wrapping around him from behind, pulling him tightly against him. “Oh, I don’t know. We’re two creative men. I’m sure we could find something we could improvise a gag out of.”

* * *

Cassidy woke up alone the next morning, and for just a moment his stomach dropped out of him. Then he realized that the thing that had woken him up was the smell of bacon cooking, and dared to let himself hope.

He followed his nose to the kitchen and there was Joseph, still in his same pajama bottoms but the top replaced by one of Cassidy’s own shirts hanging a little bit too baggy on his body. And there was Mary as well, leaning against the outside ledge of his kitchen window as the two of them talked quietly to each other through it. It was the most peaceable Cassidy had ever seen them seem around each other, Mary smiling slightly with sad eyes, Joseph’s shoulders free of any tension. 

Then Mary spotted Cassidy past Joseph, and raised one hand in a lazy salute. “Morning, Homewrecker.”

Cassidy had been hesitating at the door, not sure if it was his place to interrupt them, but stepped through at the greeting. “Is that just my nickname now?” he complained, “Is that our new thing?” Then any further attempts at banter were wiped away when Joseph whirled to face him, and the grin on his face at the sight of him was the same as it had been when he’d woken up that morning on the yacht, like just the sight of Cassidy made all the world a better place in his eyes.

“Yes,” Mary was replying, although he could hardly pay attention to her, “Congratulations, you have earned a ranking in the neighborhood beyond ‘New Guy’. It’s your own fault you went after my husband to get it.” She glanced back and forth between them, realizing she was being ignored, and rolled her eyes. “Oh, God damn it, just kiss your boyfriend good morning you assholes. I’m gonna have to get used to seeing it anyway.”

Joseph hesitated, glancing back at her just to be eye-rolled at once more, then wrapped an arm around Cassidy’s waist and brushed his lips against his. It was hardly more than a peck, presumably out of consideration for their audience, but his mouth was soft and warm and afterward he bumped his head softly against Cassidy’s and murmured, “Good morning.”

“Hey,” he whispered back. Somehow Mary being right there, watching but making no move to stop them, made it seem more real that this time things really were going to work out. “So, what were you two talking about?”

“What do you think, Kid?” Mary asked. “How we’re gonna work this mess out.”

“Mary was doing some research last night. It sounds like we might not even need lawyers if we come to an agreement on our own.”

“The agreement is going to involve the two of you living right here. You are not getting out of that one.”

“Mary, I just moved here a few months ago. There is nothing that could make me pack all my stuff back into boxes for at least a decade.” Cassidy finally spotted the bacon he’d smelled when he woke cooling on a plate and reached out to grab a slice only to have Joseph swat his hand away.

“Now now, patience is a virtue! I’m working on farmer’s omelettes as a special treat. Homemade hashed browns and all.” He gestured to the sink below the window Mary was peering through and Cassidy realized that he’d been grating potatoes into a strainer propped over a pan as he’d spoken to her. “You’re in for a treat!”

“Okay, this is getting too domestic,” Mary cut in, pushing away from the window and turning from them, “I only even came out here to get the paper. I’ll catch you dweebs later.” 

The arm around Cassidy’s waist squeezed him in a little more tightly and Joseph kissed him again, still brief and relatively chaste but no longer a touch so quick that he might as well be kissing a family member hello. “Now, I’m going to need you to lend your hand to hold the bowl while I whip the eggs, because one of mine seems to be otherwise taken.”

“I think I can handle that,” Cassidy agreed with a smile that just seemed to continuously grow wider the longer Joseph stayed right where he was. He started reaching for the cupboard the mixing bowls were in, but as he did suddenly heard someone managing a one-person stampede in their direction.

“I smell pig sizzling!” Amanda shouted as she burst through the door, only to stop dead in her tracks at the sight of them, her eyes darting from Joseph, to the shirt he was wearing, to the arm around Cassidy’s waist, her own smile draining away. “Dad,” she said, voice strained. “Dad, I told you to make _good choices_ , remember? You said that you did!”

“I did, Manda Panda!” Cassidy protested, turning his head away because he couldn’t stand to face the disappointment in her eyes. As he did he caught sight of his one possible salvation out of the corner of his eye, still making her way back into her house. “Mary!” he shouted out at her, “Tell Amanda I made good choices!”

“You made absolutely shit choices, Rookie!” Mary shouted back cheerily, making Amanda’s face twist with confusion, “But they’re good for me, so go you! By the way, I’m dumping the baby over there after he gets fed, I’m the one who had to deal with him every time he got fussy last night, you two can do it for a few hours.”

Amanda took a deep breath then let it slowly out, still looking baffled. “Okay. Okay, Pops, If Mrs. Christansen doesn’t want to gut you I guess there’s gotta be something going on here, so you better spill it. _After_ you pay your poor upset daughter a tribute of bacon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who read and enjoyed my little take on a good ending for Joseph! I do intend to do some other connected stories in the future, but for the moment I will let these families lie while I catch up on exchange fics I need to write. :-)


End file.
